Pudim de queijo
Pudim de queijo is the cheese pudding of Cabo Verde. The Cape Verdean newspaper Expresso das Ilhas calls it a speciality of the islands’ national cuisine, and Turismo de Cabo Verde, the national tourism website, recommends the goat’s-cheese pudding among the sweets worth trying. It comes from a table where goat’s milk predominates and cheese is eaten at breakfast as well as for dessert.
Related guides and Emblems
Key facts
- Country
- Cabo Verde
- Main ingredient
- Cheese; goat’s cheese in the versions named by Turismo de Cabo Verde and A Nação
- Described as
- A speciality of the islands’ national cuisine (Expresso das Ilhas)
- Method in one published recipe
- Eggs, milk and condensed milk blended with grated cheese, baked in a bain-marie over caramel and served chilled
A speciality of the islands
In a 2017 guide to Cape Verdean products worth taking home, Expresso das Ilhas explains how cheese is eaten on the islands: at breakfast, as a source of protein; as a dessert, in slices with papaya jam, quince paste or guava paste; or made into a pudim de queijo. The newspaper calls the pudding a speciality of the islands’ national cuisine.
Turismo de Cabo Verde, in its guide to the islands’ food, suggests trying the goat’s-cheese pudding along with other sweets such as those made from pumpkin and milk. The same guide describes the cooking of the islands as a fusion of West African and Portuguese traditions, reflecting more than five centuries of history.
The cheese behind it
Goat’s cheese, often made locally in small batches, is valued in the archipelago for its distinct flavour and firm texture, according to Turismo de Cabo Verde, and is served with meals or simply with fresh bread. Expresso das Ilhas names Santo Antão, Boa Vista, Fogo and Maio as the islands that produce cheese.
Lusa, the Portuguese news agency, reported in 2023 from Ribeira Dom João on Maio, where cheesemaking is old and nearly everyone has done it at home. The day starts with milking. Setting takes about two hours and, the cheesemaker said, is done the natural way, with a dried and boiled pinch of the stomach of a newborn kid; the liquid is then drawn off by hand. The curd is pressed by hand into moulds, salted and left in the fridge for another 24 hours. A cooperative dairy was created in 2014 and began producing in 2017; in 2023 six women were keeping it going, worried that young people were not interested in learning the craft.
One way to make it
A Nação, a Cape Verdean newspaper, has printed a recipe credited to Nham Nham – Sabores de Cabo Verde. A can of condensed milk is blended with four eggs and two cans of milk, measured with the empty condensed-milk can, and 100 grams of grated goat’s cheese is added at the end. The mixture goes into a mould coated with caramel and is baked in a bain-marie in a moderate oven for about 50 minutes, then cooled completely and chilled for a few hours before being turned out.
In Emblem World, pudim de queijo sits in the Cabo Verde dessert collection with doce de papaya and bolo de cuscuz, where people discover and rate local sweets.
Sources
- Turismo de Cabo Verde: Gastronomia em Cabo Verde: viaje pelos sabores das ilhas
- Expresso das Ilhas: Incmenda d’ Cabo Verde (23 November 2017)
- Lusa, via Agroportal: Queijo do Maio quer conquistar Cabo Verde, mesmo com futuro incerto (3 September 2023)
- A Nação: Pudim de Queijo de Cabra, recipe by Nham Nham – Sabores de Cabo Verde (24 March 2023)
Checked by Emblem editorial on 17 October 2026.